By Carissa
If you live in Portland and are a runner you probably know who Kara Goucher is. This Olympian and elite athlete lives in the same neighborhood as I do and yet I’ve never seen her in person until this past Saturday. You’d think I would have run into her at the local grocery store, coffee shop, or park but I haven't. I’m actually glad this is the case because if I did I would really want to introduce myself and would be a bundle of nerves.
Last week there was a post on the Team Athena Facebook page asking who would be running the Red Lizard Stumptown Cross Country 5k on Saturday. The ladies wanted to make sure they had a team of at least four. I was planning on doing a tuneup race on Saturday so I volunteered to run with the team. I had done one other cross country race last year and it was casual and fun. On the post one of the ladies mentioned that Kara Goucher might be racing. How fun!
I met my teammates at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning. The race was in NE Portland at Fernhill Park. I saw Kara with some ladies who run for Bowerman Athletic Club. I felt a bit star struck but resisted the urge to introduce myself. Instead a couple of us ran the course to get familiar with it and warm up. Most of it was on grass and this intimidated me. Aside from running by feel I really didn’t know what kind of pace to expect. After all this was only my second 5k and my second cross-country race.
